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This idyllic hideaway is accessible only by sea and is the common denominator in the friendship over more than 60 years of two Kiwi childhood rugby mates. US-based financier Bruce Cleland and Auckland civil engineer Grant Campbell met playing school-age rugby in Wellington.

Decades later in 2000, when it came time for Bruce to rebuild the two dwellings on this land, he engaged Grant to put his background in the construction industry to good use by managing the project.

Bruce has been living overseas for the past 47 years, during which time he married and raised a family of four children. It was when his mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness that he decided to renew his bonds to New Zealand.

This home was always about delivering dynamic social spaces, including the breezeway for table tennis and bedrooms away from living areas for solitude.

"Aside from the communal spaces, it's really important to have those private spaces and that was part of Peter's philosophy," says Grant. "This house is cosy for two and comfortable for 20."

For Bruce and his wife Isobel, the remoteness of Orokawa Bay has been magical.

"I used to lie awake at nights and dream about it," says Bruce. With family and grandchildren well-established in the US, he has a holiday property closer to home, but he'll still be keeping connected to family and friends in New Zealand.